Saturday, May 24, 2008

Now for some Medical News & Agora pra mais novidades médicas

Earlier today, we got another visit from Bonnie, the home nurse. She comes here 2-3 times a week to check on Antonio. She weighs, checks his temperature, pokes and probes him to see how he's doing at home.

The good news is that between her and the weekly visits to "the other" Dr. Mike (Antonio's pediatrician is also called Dr. Mike, but not the same doctor from the NICU), we are sure that we are doing a good job feeding and keeping him healthy.

According to Bonnie's scale, and we will start to use her weighing to report on the blog, Antonio is 8 lbs 9.5 oz and gained 5 oz since last Tuesday.

Antonio is also doing better on the pooping department, but it is always an aided effort either via suppository or rectal stimulation. Dr. Mike explained that the issue is not related to the food, but rather the fact that premmies lack good coordination beteen the stomach's muscles and the rectal esfincter, which makes them hold the poop in no matter how much "pressure" they make to evacuate.. actually the more they try, the more they hold in!

That means that he is eating better as well, since he is not as full as before. Now he is eating in average between 75 and 90 ml for each feeding, totaling 400-550 ml per day, which is pretty normal for his weigh.

To finish, because since Antonio got home not only we have less interesting things to tell, but also less time to write the posts, we will try to change the format of the blog which will become more of a Vlog -- little vignettes or snippets to relate Antonio's daily routine.

Of course, we will still write up whenever there is something important to say, and post pictures like this, which was taken before Antonio got his nebulizer teratment the other day -- don't ask... it will be explained on the first vlog that I will post tomorrow.